Norman’s Cay History

The Exuma Cays are arguably the most beautiful islands in the Bahamas – a collection of 365 coral atolls surrounded shallow turquoise waters. Norman’s Cay was named after a pirate and lies in the northern section of the chain. It’s 6 miles long and half a mile wide; 55 miles southeast of Nassau and 320 miles southeast of Miami. The Cay is shaped like a fish hook with a natural, protected anchorage inside the “hook”. She has been a home for bandits of all generations: pirates exploited her hidden anchorages, blockade runners used her as a transit point during the Civil War and Rum Runners stored supplies on her during Prohibition. In 1978, the island had approx. 50 residents. It’s northeastern “hook” featured Cape Cod-style houses while the southeastern portion was undeveloped but boasted a 3,300ft concrete airstrip and a 4-mile beach known as Smuggler’s Cove. The Norman’s Cay Yacht Club sat just east of the airstrip. It featured a 12-room hotel, a four stool bar, a restaurant, a company store, a wooden dock with fuel pumps and the island’s only telephone. Water came from cisterns; electricity from generators. Conditions were rustic.

May 1978: Lehder buys the Beckwith House on the islands’ northeastern tip for $190,000 cash. He renames it Volcano after the giant octagonal chimney in the center of its living room. Radar beacons are set up at the house for Lehder to manage his fleet of aircraft.

June 1978: Lehder scares off the remaining residents and converts the cay into his personal utopia: an industrial cocaine operation with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Joan Baez providing the soundtrack and topless girls driving around in Wrangler Jeeps. He contracts a German security firm to provide security and enlists a motley crew of American and Colombian pilots to fly his planes.

July 1978: Lehder upgrades the 3,000ft runway, builds refrigerated storage hangars along its side and converts the island’s rustic hotel into a clubhouse for his pilots. Girls, flowers and steaks are flown in from Medellin every week – along with industrial quantities of cocaine. The island becomes a playground for the cocaine elite: orgies and Bacchanalian feasts are legendary. Carlos Toro, one of Lehder’s pilot’s, describes it like this: “Norman’s Cay was a playground. I have a vivid picture of being picked up in a Land Rover with the top down and naked women driving… five males, 10 females and everybody runs naked and everybody switches partners and everybody drinks and smokes marijuana… three days of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

August 1978: Jorge Ochoa visits Norman’s Cay in a Mitsubishi twin-engine turboprop loaded floor-to-ceiling with 314 kilos of cocaine. This first experiment is a success: the load sells for $15 million wholesale in Florida. Ochoa gives Escobar the green light to start using Norman’s Cay.

September 6th, 1978: The DEA follow a Florida marijuana smuggler, Ed Ward, to Norman’s Cay. They get permission from the Bahamian Government to start spying on the island.

September 8th, 1978: Lehder invites Ward and his associates to join his operation as pilots. Ward agrees to carry out 10 flights of 250 kilos for $400,00 per flight.

December 1978: Legendary CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite sails his 42 ft yacht into Norman’s Cay and drops anchor. He’s told the island is closed and forced to sail south. Years later, he would recount this story at Carlos Lehder’s Jacksonville trial as a prosecution witness.

January 31st, 1979: Lehder buys 165 acres on the western and eastern tips of the Cay for $875,000. Robert Vesco, the fugitive American financier, Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa all visit.

January 1979: Ed Ward completes his first flight to Medellin in a Swearigen Merlin III – a twelve seat corporate turboprop. He is forced to return with 500 kilos – double the agreed amount – and his relationship with Lehder begins to sour.

February 1979: The island’s staff now numbers approx. 50 with 3 full time Colombian pilots, 5 full time American pilots. Half a dozen planes line the airstrip including a Sabreliner and a Learjet. Doberman attack dogs patrol the island’s perimeter as guards in VW buses ferry cash and cocaine from refrigerated hangars to different planes bound for Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. This made delivery easier since U.S. authorities were only watching the country’s southern borders.

February 1979: Under stress from the long flights and chaos of Lehder’s operation, Ward starts using cocaine daily. He quickly becomes addicted – as does everyone else. The atmosphere on the Cay becomes increasingly tense and paranoid. “It’s not fun anymore,” Ward says.

March 1979: Lehder’s obsession with security worsens. His infatuation with Che Guevara results in his inner circle wearing combat fatigues. The island descends into an increasingly militarized atmosphere: every time a plane arrives, the Colombians and Germans brandish weapons and rush around the island as if they were being raided. Once the cocaine leaves again, euphoria and decadent parties restore the balance. Lehder starts buying expensive cars including a Corvette and old Duzenberg which he races along the airstrip.

April – September, 1979: The glory days of Lehder’s operation on Norman’s Cay. DEA case files from his 1987 trial state the drug ring was responsible for smuggling 74 percent of the cocaine used in the U.S. at this time. The Norman’s Cay operation delivered 300 kilos of the drug every day. In 1979, a kilo of 12-percent purity cocaine sold on the street for an average of $800,000. By 1984, prices had dropped as low as $30,000 in New York City and $16,000 in South Florida.

September, 1979: Ed Ward spots three Bahamas Defense Force boats heading towards Norman’s Cay from Nassau. He turns around and warns Lehder who seems indifferent to the news.

September 4th, 1979: “Operation Racoon”. 90 Bahamian police officers raid Norman’s Cay arresting 33 people – everyone in Lehder’s operation except Lehder and his German bodyguard, Manfred. A few days later, the entire group was released in Nassau on just $2,000 bail.

December 1979: Lehder is officially told to leave the Bahamas – but he ignores the order and continues his business uninterrupted. The government does nothing to stop him.

July 1980: Ed Ward is put on the Bahamians “stop list” and Lehder kicks him off Norman’s Cay.

January 1981: Lehder and Ed Ward are indicted on 39 counts of smuggling, conspiracy and income tax evasion by a Federal Grand Jury. Business continues on Norman’s Cay as usual.

September 1981: Lehder is placed on the Bahamians’ “stop list”. He abandons Volcano and flies his Rockwell 690 Commander to Colombia with all his personal belongings. He continues to use Norman’s Cay as a transhipment point and leaves a Colombian staff to protect his interests.

July 10th, 1982: Independence Day in the Bahamas. Lehder orders his pilots to fly over Nassau dumping leaflets with “Nixon-Reagan’s Drug Enforcement Agency Go Home” written on them over the celebrating crowds. Some have $100 bill attached.

September, 1983: NBC News reports the Pindling Administration has taken bribes from drug dealers. Bahamian authorities freeze Lehder’s bank accounts. He leaves the Bahamas forever.